Prior to Embarking on First Fieldwork Education Exposure: Preparing Social Work Students through Five Experiential Learning Activities

Abstract

There is an extensive literature emphasizing the importance of field education in the professional learning of social work students, and it is argued that the practice placement experience for all students is expected and demanding. “Practice shock” or “Practice anxiety” are terms often used to describe the impact of students in meeting the practice, starting from their first practice placement up to the initial work period as social worker. How educators prepare social work students to cope with fieldwork education experiences remains a controversial debate and a complex issue in the international arena. In the Italian experience at the Catholic University of Milan and Brescia arose the need to develop preparatory activities to introduce students to the reality of social work practice. Social work professors and first-year undergraduate students ideated and experimented with five learning activities. These experiential learning activities have a common aim: to take care of the students’ transition from the university to the fieldwork. The focus of the activities is not on the acquisition of social workers’ specialist knowledge (commonly offered by specific courses), but on the students’ need of working on themselves first. The experiential activities are a 75 hours front-line experience with people in need; a 21 hours emotional self-awareness workshop; a group activity to work on a concrete goal of personal change; full day meetings with Experts by experience; students’ self-managed meetings on social work themes. Through these activities, students gained basic insights into the key principles of social work practice useful to better deal with imminent future field education challenges.